THERE can’t be too many order books that include Colonel Gaddafi and the Saudi Royal family.

Dean Burrows’ does.

Scrolling through his back catalogue of contracts, Mr Burrows stops at April 2010.

Recounting the work, the co-director at Cibes Lift UK admits the project was a little different from the norm.

He said: “Gaddafi was building a series of villas for a North African congress, which was held next to his compound.

“We got a call from a UK-based contractor who was working out there and asked us if we would be interested.

“We got the work and installed seven lifts in the villas.

“It was quite a lucrative contract but it wasn’t without its challenges.

“The logistics of getting over there and getting engineers approved wasn’t easy and we also had the heat and rather basic hotels to contend with.

“But we completed the job in good time.”

Mr Burrows’ Hartlepool-based company, still known to many in the area as its pre-Cibes guise, Platform Lift Solutions, supplies and installs a range of passenger, service and platform lifts.

Taken over by the Cibes Lift Group earlier this year, the business, based on Longhill Industrial Estate, hopes the partnership will build on the two operations’ experiences and customer bases.

That history includes another stellar contract, secured and fulfilled under the Platform name.

Back in 2012, when the nation was gripped by London Olympic and Paralympic Games fever, the Saudi Royal family came to the capital to take in the action.

In doing so, rather predictably, they didn’t settle for just any lavish surroundings.

They chose, says Mr Burrows, a building next to London’s opulent Savoy Hotel.

But their demands for luxury didn’t end there.

“They rented the top floor and roof terrace of a building and wanted access to the terrace”, he said.

“It was only in for four weeks, for the duration of the Olympics, and was another unique thing.

“But most of the lifts we do are fairly standard.”

Mr Burrows’ last line is telling, in that it reflects what Cibes is really about.

As he says, the blue ribbon projects are nice when they come, but it’s the everyday projects that will keep the firm moving forward and help it build from the foundations he helped install.

He said: “Platform was started in 2004 by myself and Gary Sullivan.

“We’d both previously worked in the lift business for a couple of organisations and decided to go ourselves.

“We started from scratch in the March and thought we could offer something different, like a more personal service we thought the larger companies could not offer.

“We both had good skills and thought if we put them together, we could make a success of it.”

Work to tap into contacts garnered over many years followed, before Platform got its first order in the September.

Agreements have flowed ever since and the firm has continued to grow its market reputation over the last decade.

However, Mr Burrows says it is ready to move up another level through its Cibes tie-up, with bosses at the Swedish lift maker eyeing the Hartlepool company as a gateway into UK markets and sales.

He added: “Cibes are possibly the largest platform lift maker in the world now.

“We started buying from them back in 2006/2007 and we have a history with them.

“They have got a lot of experience and it offers us an opportunity to focus on growing our market share.

“We are looking for real growth in the next three to five years.”